Grab & Go Subs, a homegrown sandwich chain with eight San Diego locations, is planning a major expansion that its owners hope will eventually include up to 75 new stores throughout Southern California.

The growth plan is considered fairly aggressive for a family-run organization that has opened just nine eateries since 1973, when the late founder, Vincenzo "Mimmo" Gaglio, founded what is now known as Mimmo's in Little Italy.

Grab & Go, though, has now sped up the pace, debuting a store in Kearny Mesa, and plans to add two more, in Santee and El Cajon, by the end of the year.

Within two years, the Italian sandwich chain, which bakes the bread daily for all its subs at an Ocean Beach bakery, intends to add 30 Grab & Go shops throughout San Diego County.

Cesar Pantoja, who is overseeing the expansion, stresses that the company will remain family-owned and operated, forgoing the franchise model embraced by many other rapidly expanding fast-food outlets.

"All the other sandwich shops are national brands, but we’re not going to go that route," said Pantoja, whose stepfather was Gaglio. "We want to keep an eye on everything. We’ve had offers from different groups to purchase the naming rights and the actual company itself so they could franchise it, but that’s not what we’re about."

Not only is Grab & Go adding some new sandwiches and salads to its menu, but it's also created a new color palette of deep reds, dark grays and bright white for the design of its newer stores. Each costs about $120,000 to develop, Pantoja said.

Considered the forerunner of the now burgeoning sub sandwich chain, Mimmo's remained the sole family restaurant until 1994, when the first quick-serve shop for torpedo sandwiches was born.

The market for submarine sandwiches has grown increasingly crowded since then, with chains such as Quiznos, Subway and Submarina, all operating dozens of stores in San Diego County, with varying degrees of success.

Quiznos completed a financial restructuring earlier this year after closing hundreds of its sub shops. Meanwhile, Submarina, which this year moved its corporate offices from San Diego County to Texas, has interest in expanding its 50 locations but for now is holding off, said CEO Bruce Rosenthal.

Grab & Go's three newest locations will occupy former Quiznos and Submarina spaces.

Said Rosenthal, "The notion of a food operation going into the locations of other former food operations thinking they'll do better than their predecessors, well, sometimes they're right or they'll learn the hard way the same truth their predecessors learned.

"We have a significant interest in expanding but this minute, we're currently on hiatus."

Restaurant consultant Tom Kelley said he's skeptical that Grab & Go can expand as quickly as it hopes without outside expertise and capital, but if the family can secure low rents in more affordable locations, it may be possible.

"In such a competitive environment, especially for subs, there’s a reason why Quiznos had problems," Kelley said. "Inevitably, they’ll have to go outside for some things if they want to grow that quickly."